Tuesday, December 20

Transit strike opinionators

So NYC is in the midst of a transit strike. You may have heard. I've been reading lots o'crap about this, both news and opinion. And here's what I have to say to all the opinionators out there.

To any and all of you who can't spell (or at least use spell check) or construct a simple sentence correctly, your opinions are instantly disqualified. Ditto to those who have basic facts wrong, including the TWU's demands, the nature and applicability of the Taylor law, and the names and job titles of the key players. And sorry, but ditto also to those who live nowhere near NYC and do not use our public transportation system.

OK, I feel better now.

(For the sake of disclosure, I usually take the subway to work, but I worked from home today. Whew.)

Saturday, December 3

101 things (take 1)

OK, got my new computer mostly working, so here is the first installment of 101 things about me, as promised.

1. I'm a perfectionist.
2. I used to think I didn't like asparagus, feta cheese, or pistachios until Sean suggested I try them again, and now I love them.
3. But I still don't like tomatoes or mushrooms.
4. I like to crochet, even though some people call me grandma when I do.
5. I really enjoy wrapping presents.
6. I have three tattoos. Two are custom pieces that I designed. I share the third one with my friends Kate and Eryn.
7. I wish I had experimented with my hair color more when I was younger and didn't have to look presentable for work.
8. I was vegetarian for a few years, but now I eat fish and even an occasional cheeseburger.
9. I have lived in 5 different foreign countries and 7 different states so far and visited many more.
10. Sometimes I want to move to Montana and become a bush pilot.
11. I'm not dyslexic, but there are certain pairs of words that I frequently get mixed up: umbrella and elevator; pigeon and penguin.
12. Speaking of which, I hate pigeons.
13. I think the word "squirrel" is funny.
14. I get really embarrassed when I think about what a know-it-all I was when I was younger.
15. I have 2 sisters, one of whom is a famous blogger, and 1 brother, who thinks blogging is dorky (hi, Blake!).
16. I have never had a broken bone.
17. I like elephant jokes.
18. I wore glasses and braces in high school and hated them both. Thank you, LASIK surgery.
19. I like football and beer.
20. I drove to Mardi Gras in 1997 and again in 1998 with friends from grad school. We created a vault for storing the things that transpired there.
21. I walked home to Brooklyn from Manhattan during the blackout of August 2003.
22. I was in Mensa for a couple of years, but I let my membership expire.
23. My first new vehicle was a blue Dodge truck, which I adored. It replaced an elderly gray Oldsmobile, affectionately called the tank, which had its own charm.
24. I love LipSmackers lip gloss, but not the glittery kind.
25. I once went to Mexico without any forms of ID at all. Not my brightest moment.
26. I spent a weekend with three friends driving almost 1,000 miles to San Diego. We went to Sea World, then turned around and drove all the way back home to make it in time for work on Monday morning.
27. I toured most of New Mexico in a car named Nick.
28. I have a large collection of Disney movies on video, which I should probably sell on eBay.
29. I was president of my social club for one semester in college.
30. I happened to be at the top of the Empire State Building at sunset, and it was beautiful. I never could have timed it that way on purpose.
31. I make killer vegetarian chili.
32. I took my driving test in a colossal 1979 Ford station wagon. I couldn't parallel park it, so I failed the test the first time. And I ran a stop sign.
33. I never feel obligated to answer a ringing phone.
34. I spent New Year's Eve with my family on a boat in the middle of the Red Sea two years in a row (1993 and 1994).
35. I am very detail-oriented.
36. I won a bike in an essay contest about road safety in grade school. It was white.
37. I suck at sports and hate playing them.
38. I love the water, especially the ocean (any ocean will do).
39. I collect dolphins.
40. Some people call me (no, not a space cowboy) a pessimist, but really I am a frustrated idealist.
41. I have Myers-Briggs personality type INFJ. When I was younger, I was INFP. I guess this means I am more judgmental now than I used to be. In the MBTI tests, I am frequently split or borderline between F/T and J/P.
42. I learned to scuba dive from my mom when I was about 13.
43. Yo hablo espanol.
44. Sometimes I can't understand how anyone lives in NYC, and sometimes I can't imagine why anyone lives anywhere else.
45. I used to wear steel-toed boots to work, and like it.
46. As a child, I thought my dad was the most handsome man in the world.
47. I memorized the number of stairs in each flight in our entire house as a kid, so that I could still navigate if I went blind or the power went out.
48. I make up little songs to sing to my dog because she likes it.
49. I wish I could draw or sing well.
50. I'm something of a packrat.

This is harder than I thought it would be. But as soon as I come up with another 51 things, I'll post the follow-up. Don't hold your breath, though; it could be a while.